COMMERCIAL LOTTERY OPERATOR Pacific Online Systems Corp. is expanding its distribution channel for instant lottery ScratchIt as part of plans to double sales of the instant tickets to P1 billion.

Pacific Online yesterday signed an agreement with shoes and bags repair chain Mr. Quickie to sell the instant lottery tickets in the latter?s franchise stores and is working on a similar agreement with convenience store chain 7-Eleven. The company now has close to 2,000 distribution outlets for the instant tickets.

Of the P1-billion targeted sales of ScratchIt tickets, Pacific Online can book about P150 million in net revenue or about a fifth of the company?s total for this year, company chair Willy Ocier told reporters yesterday.

ScratchIt, which offers eight instant game variants, offers more than P400 million in total prizes. It is one of the fastest-growing offerings of the state-controlled Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. Most of the games are sold at P20 a ticket with a top prize of up to P20,000 while also recently launched were P50 game variants offering a top prize of up to P500,000.

About half of ScratchIt tickets are distributed by Pacific Online?s subsidiary Lucky Circle Corp. and another 30 percent by provincial PCSO outlets. To expand the offering, Ocier said the company was tapping non-traditional outlets like Mr. Quickie and 7-Eleven. Doris C. Dumlao